Dave Kossak, a third-year forestry student at Michigan Technological University, has a sweet solution to Michigan’s economic woes: maple syrup. He’d like to see Michigan become the maple syrup capital of the world, and his proposal for accomplishing that goal has won him a $5,000 scholarship as the fourth place winner of a college student competition called Motivate Michigan.

Research led by scientists from Michigan Tech's School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science has identified the molecular mechanism that poplar trees use to adapt to changing soil conditions, as well as some of the genes that turn the process on or off.